Want to see what I did this weekend?

One of the mom’s from my birth month board started a project last week–a purse made from a felted wool sweater. As it happens, I’d felted like 6 of my wool sweaters last year after seeing this project in Woman’s Day (I think). But then I lost the instructions on how to do it so I never got around to it. But after seeing the beginning of Jessica’s project, I got inspired and I pulled my sweaters out of the basement.

First, the sweaters:

I decided to work with these two first:

I thought the striped one was a little bolder and that I might not like it as much, so I cut it up first:

Testing the fabric in my sewing machine, I decided not to waste stitches and I made a test purse.

Perfect size for a cell phone 😉

Sewn together but unfinished. The strap is made from one of the sleeves.

I added a pocket to the back:

The front, finished with a button for the flap:

A peek inside. The lining is black though the flash makes it look gray.

One last look at the finished product, flash on:

I’m going to make the green one next. This one was a lot of trial and error so I think the next one should go smoother. For instance, this first one went through three linings. The first lining was beautiful but when I pinned it in, too small. The second lining was from a material that was a bitch to work with and when I pinned it in, was ugly. This black lining turned out really well and I’m happy with it. It’s got three pockets in ti to catch sunglasses, cell phone and lipstick 😉

I also found a way to make “appliques” from felted sweaters that I can make from one material and pin on a purse of a different material, so I’m going to try that. And the green purse will be of a slightly different style, with a cuff at the top instead of a flap. Stay tuned for further pictures!

10 Comments

That is awesome! On the link that Jessica gave you, what is the name of the project? I’d love to try this out. It would make a great Christmas present. :Christmas:

Angie
on December 12, 2006 at 9:34 AM

I didn’t have a link for directions. I just created my own, lol. You have to remember, I worked as an Occupational Therapist for 10 years so I was doing crafty things all the time. I’m used to looking at something and then figuring it out, so that’s what I did. The purse that Jessica did, and the other girl on the craft board did, looked a bit different than mine. I just took the idea and went from there. If I find some instructions, I’ll share them with you. I can give you the link to the craft board (which is awesome) and you can also try Googling Felted Purses and a variation of that to find ideas.

I wore mine out for the first time yesterday and just loved it. I was upset when the hostess offered to put my purse upstairs, I wanted to wear it the whole time, lol.

I can’t wait to see the green one, I think it will turn into a great bag. Are you going to keep all of them? They would be good gifts too.

Jessica
on December 12, 2006 at 3:34 PM

P. S. And I finally got to see your blog by using a entirely different web browser because I wanted to see how the bag turned out!

Angie
on December 12, 2006 at 3:36 PM

Thanks, jessica!

I might keep one. And I’d love to give them as gifts, but what if the person I’m gifting it to thinks it’s ugly and doesn’t want to hurt my feelings? I’d rather they go to someone who will love it but how do I know who that is? lolol

I got a couple cool sweaters at Goodwill today (they were on sale even) so I could use them for appliques. Funkier colors than what I had. I’m going to end up with an assortment of purses and no clue what to do with them!

Jessica
on December 12, 2006 at 4:43 PM

Wow, you’re really getting into it! I know what you mean about not knowing if people think the same as you about them. You could always try to sell them on http://www.etsy.com, it’s a great site to see homemade goods. I don’t know what kind of traffic it gets though. I like ours much better than those $75 ones you found too. 🙂

Angie
on December 12, 2006 at 4:47 PM

Oh, I like crafts and I haven’t done anything fun for awhile that’s not book related. So I figure if I make some purses, eventually I’ll get tired of it and move on to the next thing 😉 But it’s nice to do something different, that doesn’t involve reading for a change!